Category Archives: Uncategorized

We are just three weeks away from the next Gross Card Con. This year’s show is part of the Vegas Toy Con, held at the Westgate Casino in Las Vegas from March 1-3. Once again, the show will offer an exclusive card set created by the artists. That’s not all! There will also be Scavenger Hunt cards, and an official Topps promo card available at the show. Clint Coleman from GPK & Wacky Warehouse produces all the show exclusive cards. He shared with GPKNews all the details around this year’s cards. Read on to find out what will be offered.

As announced last week by artist David Gross, there will be an officially licensed Topps promo card for the first time at Gross Card Con. The Married With Children parody will come in both an a and b version. Show goers will have a few options to obtain these cards. 1) VIPs will automatically receive both versions of the card at their VIP Saturday breakfast. 2) Purchase the glossy show exclusive set (see details below) and receive both cards. Each set purchased will receive both cards, there is a limit of two sets per customer, per day of the show. 3) Attend the artist Q&A session. The first 50 people to attend the Q&A session will receive one card, (a or b). The artist Q&A is scheduled to take place at 11:00 AM Saturday at the show.

This year’s show exclusive set will be an extra large 24 card set featuring artwork from 12 different artists. The set has two themes, 12 unpublished gags, and 12 toys. David Gross did three paintings for the set, Layron DeJarnette did one, and Tom Bunk, Brent Engstrom, Joe Simko, Joe McWilliams, Mark Pingitore, Jeff Zapata, Michael Barnard, Chenduz, Chad Scheres, and Jon Gregory did two each. The set will be available in two different versions, Glossy and Canvas. Each set will be limited to 100 available to purchase at the show. The print run of the Glossy set is 250, with the remaining cards being given to show promoters, artists, and to be sold after the show. The Glossy set will cost $50, while the Canvas set will be $40. There will be a special show promotion, you can purchase both sets for $80. VIP holders will receive a Glossy set as part of their package. While the Canvas set won’t come with any extras, the Glossy set will come with the Topps promo cards and a chance at pulling a special show redemption. Redemptions will fall roughly 1:5 sets, and include a chance to get a sketch card from one of the 12 artists from the set, merchandise credits from GPK & Wacky Warehouse, or a large medal art card printed by Faeire Metal company. Only glossy sets purchased at the show will receive the Topps promo cards and have a chance at a redemption. Sets will be available for purchase from the GPK & Wacky Warehouse booth at the show. The artists have revealed some of their cards for the set. Here is a gallery showing many of the cards.

Finally, there will be a GPK Scavenger Hunt during the show. Four Topps sketch artists attending the show, Shane Garvey, Barry Nygma, David Acevedo, and Shawn Cruz all painted a card to be used during the hunt. The four cards will be hidden around the show venue throughout the weekend. The artists will also have copies of the cards available at their booth. VIP holders will also receive all four cards in their package. Here are a couple of examples of the scavenger hunt cards.

These are just the cards show promoters have planned for the show. Each artist has so much more planned for this year’s Gross Card Con. GPKNews will have another article just before the event showing many of the goodies available from each artist. If you haven’t booked your room yet, now is your chance!

The 30th Anniversary Garbage Pail Kids set was highly anticipated from collectors. Topps saw the demand and produced a healthy amount of cards to go around. With the release of the 2016 GPK Apple Pie set would Topps follow suit, or change things around? We already know some of this information. Topps, while deciding to keep the large base set, completely changed the way parallels are done. They even started putting production numbers on many of the parallel sets. However, there is still a lot of information we can get by looking at sell sheet data, and pack odds.

First my disclaimer! Production numbers are never an exact science, and Topps makes it tough on us. In order to attempt to solve this riddle we need to look very closely at the clues in both the odds and the sell sheets. Some things to keep in mind for this post. 1) Topps doesn’t want the public to know exactly how much of each card was made. Why? No idea really, I think its dumb, but historically Topps only provides enough information to get close. 2) We need to make some assumptions. Those assumptions will be based on the clues we have, but still some guessing has to happen. 3) The odds never quite seem to come out completely equal. However we can round and get pretty close to how much was produced. 4) Topps changes what is printed from what the sell sheet says all the time. This will throw off all our numbers. 5) Keep in mind Topps historically holds back 5% of the print run to cover missing hits, damaged cards, and their No Purchase Necessary program. These numbers would include that 5%. With all that in mind let’s get started…(Warning lots of math coming up. If you don’t want to hear about the process, skip to the bottom for the answer sheet!)

First we need to figure out how many packs were made for the entire print run. In order to do that we can only use a card type where the odds are exactly the same in Hobby, Collector, and Retail packs. This year there is only one type of card where that is the case, Gold Dust borders, at 1:44. In the past Topps would also keep Printing Plate odds the same throughout production, but they threw a bone to Collector packs this set, more on that in Part 2. Here’s what we know, there are 220 cards in the set. Gold Dust cards are numbered on the back this year to /50. Therefore, 220 cards X 50 number of golds per card = 11,000 total Gold Dust cards X 44 Odds = 484,000 total packs made for the release. Here’s our first point where things could go wrong. There is only 1 type of card where the odds are the same throughout all pack types, so there isn’t another way to double check our numbers. Topps could have held more Gold borders back, or maybe the odds were printed wrong. As I mentioned above, we have to use what we have available. After completely going through the numbers I’m confident this is a good starting point and has to be close to what was produced.

Now let’s try to figure out how many of each pack type was created for this release. Collector packs are always the easiest to figure out because they always contain cards that are exclusively made for the set. There are three inserts that are exclusive to Collector boxes; Artist Relics, Patches, and Duel Artist Sketch Cards.

As you can see really close numbers. Why don’t they match? Well, who knows really? Like I mentioned, the odds are never all exact, could be some rounding on Topps part. But the fact that all three are less than 300 packs apart, I think we have a good idea how many Collector packs were made. I’m going to go with the 36,500 number for our purpose throughout the rest of the post.

Now lets move onto Hobby packs. We can figure out how many Hobby packs were made by looking at something that only Collector and Hobby packs have in common. We can use Die-cut sketches to figure out Hobby packs.

Let’s call that an even 39,000 for Hobby packs. Now that we’ve figured out Hobby/Collector production, let’s work on retail. Previously we determined there were 484,000 total packs produced. So we could simply go 484,000 total packs – 36,500 Collector packs – 39,000 Hobby packs = 408,500 total Retail packs produces. We can check our math by using another card type that is in both Hobby/Collector and Retail, the Artist Autographs. How many autos are there? 110 cards in set X 25 autos per card = 2750 total autos. Let’s see how the individual odds break that down with our pack totals we previously figured out.

398,800 and 408,500 are pretty close considering the large number of packs. This is one of the reasons why I’m confident we are on the right track with the production numbers for the set. I’m going to go with 408,500 total Retail packs as the number we use going forward.

Usually I’d be happy just getting these numbers. In the past its been impossible to figure out how many different types of retail packs; gravity, retail, blaster, jumbo, blister, etc. Topps produces. However, this time Topps did something interesting. They added a different type of sketch into Blaster boxes, and Jumbo packs. Therefore, we are able to determine for the first time how many Jumbo and Blaster packs were produced.

408,500 total retail packs – 80,200 Jumbo pack equivalent (Topps considers Jumbo packs as 2 packs in the odds, so we need to double this number as the total retail pack numbers represents total 10 card packs.) = 328,300 – 68,000 Blaster packs = 260,300 Retail packs left. Unfortunately, we can’t breakdown the retail packs any further. The 260,300 represents Gravity feed, Regular Retail, and Blister packs. There is just not enough information in the odds or sell sheets to go any further.

Here’s the bottom line. I’m pretty confident that these numbers are close. Here is what I believe to be the production for each type of pack:

(Once again my numbers could be off. We had to make some assumptions and trust the sell sheets and odds. But I’m confident these numbers are really close.)

So what does this all mean? What stands out to me as surprising or interesting after running the numbers? First off, WOW!, they print a whole lot of retail product. There is almost the same number of Blaster packs as Hobby and Collector combined! More Jumbo packs than either Hobby or Collector packs. There is going to be retail on store shelves for months.

The other thing that stood out to me right away is production is down compared to the 30th set. In fact its down quite a bit. Let’s compare the two looking back at the numbers we figured out for the 30th set:

Topps prints to order their product. Which means based on distributor pre-orders Topps decides how much product to produce. Its obvious the demand isn’t the same for the new set compared to the 30th set. This gives you a good idea how much, almost a 30% decline in production. Something interesting however, Collector production only fell by 11%, its clear collectors enjoy busting collector packs. Its also clear collectors don’t want Hobby boxes. Since the debut of Collector boxes, Topps has made Hobby box odds almost similar to Retail odds, and collectors are responding. One other thing to wonder, did the large decrease in retail orders cause Topps to increase the inserts and hits in retail product this year?

All fun stuff to think about as you bust into those new packs! Let me know your thoughts on the numbers in the comments!

This is Part 1 of a two part series on the production of 2016 Garbage Pail Kids Apple Pie. In Part 2 we will look at production numbers for all parallel and insert sets. Part 2 can be found here.

After a successful 30th Anniversary set, Topps took a 6 month break before offering collectors a new set. With the release of 2016 Garbage Pail Kids As American As Apple Pie In Your Face, Topps kept some changes they made with the 30th set, while at the same time completely changing the way other aspects of the release is handled. Returning once again is the large 220 base card set, broken into different subsets with card numbers on the backs. Topps decided to completely revamp the parallels not only in look and name, but also numbering many parallels on the cards backs for the first time in a regular GPK set. Familiar inserts and “hits” also return to the series. Topps also decided not to print checklist card backs for this set. Topps did release a checklist which you can find here. Production is way down on this set compared to the 30th set. I’ll have a couple of articles breaking down production numbers in the coming days. For now here is what you can find in 2016 GPK Apple Pie!

(Note: I will continue to update this post as new information comes to light and any new parallels/inserts are found.)

Base Set – 220 total cards made up of 9 different subsets.

As American As Apple Pie (42a/b – 84 Total Cards)

2016 Presidential Candidate (5a/b – 10 Total Cards)

Americana Devolved (9a/b – 18 Total Cards)

US Historical Events (9a/b – 18 Total Cards)

American Icons (9a/b – 18 Total Cards)

American Inventors (9a/b – 18 Total Cards)

America’s Pastimes (9a/b – 18 Total Cards)

Americana Sweep Under the Rug (9a/b – 18 Total Cards)

US Summer Olya-Picks (9a/b – 18 Total Cards)

Parallel Sets – Same exact cards from the Base set, except with a different speckled color border.

In a change from previous releases Topps did not include checklist card backs in the new 2016 GPK Apple Set. However, Topps has released a checklist of cards names that can be found in the set. Click here to see Topps 2016 GPK Apple Pie Checklist.

I’ll be using those numbers to attempt to figure how how many of each card/parallel were made. This can give you a good idea how tough a set will be to put together or how rare that last card you need for your rainbow is! As a reminder I had to use some educated guesswork and assumptions to come to these numbers. But I’m pretty sure we are in the ballpark.

So how many of each card was made? We aren’t able to answer this for all cards. Some of this is easy, Topps gave away this information on the sell sheet! According to the sell sheet there are 384 Italian Stamp Relics, 500 Die-Cut sketches, 19 Pen Relics, 15 total Triple Autos, 40 total Duel Autos, etc.

Other card types are impossible to figure out because not enough information is provided. For example on the retail side its not possible to determine how many Wal-Mart Blue parallels there are, or how many Poop-allels there are. While we know how many retail packs were made, we don’t know the break down between Gravity Feeds, Blasters, Jumbo, regular retail boxes, and Wal-Mart packs. We can only figure out print runs for things that have the same odds across all pack types or items in Hobby/Collector boxes.

Artist Relics: 41,000 Packs / 28 Odds = 1464 total relics / 4 or 5 (Its tough here because there are no odds for the “celebrity relic” so is it already part of the relic odds or is it separate? We don’t know.) = 366 or 292 of each relic depending on if Goldburg is included in the odds.

Now let’s grab all the odds and see how many parallel cards and the common inserts were made. Remember due to Topps confusing wording on packs, listed pack odds are actually 1/2 of what’s printed. I’ll be using the real odds in my numbers below. Also note when looking at these, the sell sheet says there are 85 copies of each Gold Border card.

Sepia/Pink Border Cards: 41,000 packs / 24 odds = 1708 total / 220 = 8 of each card made, and that’s with me rounding up! I know this number is hard to believe, but unless Topps is completely lying on the odds for Collector boxes there are just not that many of these to be had. Get yours when you see it!

Interesting numbers I think. I was shocked to see how some of the numbers came out. Now don’t take these numbers as gospel because like I’ve stated some guesswork and assumptions had to be used. But I think these general numbers are close to what’s really out there. I’d love to hear your comments on the numbers, and the method I used. If I’m off anywhere please let me know!

Finally, can we figure out how man base cards were made? Not exactly, but I’ll make a guess. Collector packs have 3 base cards, unless a thick card is in the pack. Hobby/Retail have 8 or 9 base cards depending on number of inserts in the pack. Because of this, even using my rounded guesswork numbers its still not really possible. Let’s see what we come up with anyway. I’m going to use 8.75 base cards per Hobby/Retail pack and 3 base cards per Collector pack for my numbers.